Big Heroes One Shots
by Nike
Summary: Random one-shots from my Big Heroes Series.
1. Poker Night

**Notes:** I promised to have something up on Friday, and I like to keep my promises when possible, so here we go.

This is going to be a series of random one-shots for my _Big Heroes_ series (which starts with _A Few Seconds Difference_) that my headcanon insists happened but don't really fit into any of the longer stories I have planned. Genre will be random, as a result, but this first one's fairly comedic. So, with no further ado...

* * *

**Poker Night**

"Alright, let's do this!" Fred enthused as he sat at the table.

"I still think this is a bad idea," Wasabi stated nervously, only to say, "Ow!" when Gogo punched him.

"Woman up," she said even as Baymax waddled over to scan Wasabi.

"You are unharmed," the robot pronounced.

"Uh, thanks, Baymax," Wasabi said before he took his seat.

"Oh, this is going to be so much fun!" Honey Lemon enthused from her seat.

"So, how much money are we putting in to start?" Hiro asked.

"Gummy bears, Hiro," Tadashi corrected as he took his seat across from his brother and started passing out bowls filled with the sweet before setting a larger, empty bowl in the center. "We agreed to play for gummy bears." Hiro paused as he considered the merits of this before nodding.

"Sounds good to me. Now what's the ante?"

"One in to start?" Wasabi suggested nervously.

"Nah, we have to do at least five. Ooh! Ten!" Fred insisted as he shoved in nearly a dozen of his gummy bears.

"Ante up!" Gogo demanded, rubbing her hands. Honey Lemon and the Hamada brothers quickly followed suite. Wasabi tried counting out an even number of each color, only to be stymied by the fact there were six colors. With a sigh, he put in twelve.

"Ah, upping the ante already, Wasabi? I'm in," Fred said, matching him. Everyone else matched, Honey Lemon with a worried look at Wasabi while Gogo pointed out, "You're going to lose all of your gummy bears if you keep this up."

"I can't help it!" Wasabi insisted even as he hunched his shoulders. Hiro sighed and shook his head as he shuffled the deck.

"I fail to see the point of this," Baymax said from where he was observing.

"It's a game, Baymax. Games make people happy," Hiro explained as he started dealing everyone in. "Now, shall we?"

_Half an hour later_

"Unbelievable," Gogo stated with a frown at the table. She, Fred, and Honey Lemon were now all out, with sizable piles of gummy bears in front of Hiro, Tadashi, and an oddly calm Wasabi.

"All or nothing?" Hiro offered, shoving his pile - definitely the largest - into the pot.

"Yeah, sure," Tadashi agreed as he added in all of his. Wasabi added his in as well.

"You have to be cheating somehow," Gogo insisted as they all drew their cards.

Wasabi twitched guiltily as he looked up from his cards at the others. Tadashi, calmly and without looking up, stated, "I don't know about Wasabi, but Hiro and I both tend to automatically count cards without thinking about it."

"Yeah, me too," Wasabi said with a guilty shrug. "My siblings forced me to stop playing card games with them back when we were still playing Go Fish. But there's definitely a second deck in play, too."

"And that would be because of Hiro," Tadashi stated as he moved his cards around in his hand.

"What?" Hiro asked when the others looked at him. "How else are you supposed to win against a natural card counter? Now read them and weep, boys. Full house, two kings and three, count 'em, _three_ aces."

"Not so fast, little brother," Tadashi said as he laid down his own hand.

"What?! How'd you get five aces?" Hiro demanded. Tadashi shrugged with a grin.

"When you put a second deck into play, you have to anticipate things like that."

"Uh..." Wasabi made a noise as he put down his hand, a flush of spades with ace high.

"That's _nine_ aces," Gogo pointed out.

"While Hiro did indeed add in the second deck, Tadashi has been subtly adding in a third," Baymax offered from his observation point. Both Hamada brothers froze.

"You've been cheating too?!" Hiro accused. Tadashi just grinned before he grabbed the bowl of gummy bears from the center of the table and ran.

"Hey! Come back here with my gummy bears!" Hiro shouted as he chased after.

"Yeah, I'm never playing poker against those two again," Gogo announced, popping her gum.

"I don't know whether to be dismayed or impressed," Honey Lemon admitted.

"Personally, I'm leaning towards impressed," Fred stated as he tilted his head to get a better view of the chase.

"I dunno. It was kind of fun playing a card game where it wasn't guaranteed I'd automatically win," Wasabi said. Fred, Honey Lemon, and Gogo all gave him a look.

"What?"


	2. Stupid

**Stupid**

Tadashi Hamada had just turned five when his parents sat him down on their couch and explained exactly why his mommy's tummy was getting so big. He sat there quietly, occasionally fidgeting with his hands, as they explained how, in a few months, he'd be a big brother. Once they were done, Carol and Shinichi Hamada gave each other concerned looks when Tadashi just sat there looking thoughtful.

"He's gonna be boring," Tadashi finally stated.

"What makes you say that, sweetie?" Carol asked her son with a fond smile.

"Babies just sleep and cry and eat and wet their diapers," Tadashi said with a moue of disgust.

"True, but he'll grow bigger and start getting into things, just like you did," Shinichi replied. Tadashi shrugged and knocked his heels together, looking thoughtful, but didn't say anything. His thought processes were venturing along the lines that he didn't _want_ a little brother - or sister, although they were pretty certain now that the baby would be a boy - and that once the baby stopped being boring, then they'd start stealing all of his mommy and daddy's attention. He didn't think saying that would go over well, with how excited they were being about the baby.

Tadashi also wondered why they'd only now taken him aside to tell him when they'd been leaving baby and pregnancy books strewn around the house for months now. He wasn't stupid. His mommy had even giggled when she'd taken a picture of him reading the one with the interesting pictures, going on about how cute he looked. He was so lost in that thought that he missed his parents shooting each other concerned looks over his head.

"Just wait until you meet your brother, Tadashi," his mommy finally said. "You're gonna love him."

* * *

"So, how'd the little man take the news?" Cass asked her big sister as they met up for their weekly girls' night. They were staying in more these days, what with Carol's pregnancy, but that just meant vegging on Cass's couch and tossing popcorn and gummy bears at some of the lamer B horror movie monsters.

Carol sighed at the question and admitted, "I don't know. He didn't really react at all. I'm wondering if he even understood what we were trying to tell him. I really should take him to a child development specialist. I mean, he walked late and he talked late and I'm pretty certain he doesn't respond to things the way a normal child should, although that last might be because we don't live near any other children his age. But I just never seem to find the time."

"Hey, it'll be okay," Cass reassured her big sister. "And even if he didn't get what you told him, he will once you have the baby. You certainly did."

"Oh, yes. Another worry. I still remember being jealous enough to try suffocating you with my stuffed animals," Carol admitted with a small, rueful laugh.

"Hey, I survived long enough for you to grow out of it," Cass teased as she elbowed her sister, "And with minimal brain damage, too!" Carol laughed as she nudged her baby sister back.

"Well, he's going to start kindergarten soon."

"What?! Really? But he just turned five!"

"I know! But his birthday's right before the cut-off date. Shinichi and I discussed it and we were debating on holding him back a year, but the lack of interaction with other kids for another year might just make everything worse. So we're going to try out half days. If it's good, we'll go up to full days and if it's not, we'll just pull him until next year. Claim we home-schooled him if necessary. I do work from home, after all.

"Oh! I have to show you the cutest picture I took awhile back. My little man got into the baby books Shinichi and I bought and was looking at the pictures with the cutest scrunched up face!" Carol said as she pulled out her phone and flipped to the picture in question.

"Aw!" Cass cooed as she looked at the picture. "Makes you wonder what he thought the story was about."

"I know, right?"

A shriek from the TV made them both jump before laughing.

"Right. What movie were we watching again?"

"I dunno. A really horrible one based on what I could find out. Something about body snatchers, I think."

* * *

"Alright! Everyone sit down! Hello, class! I'm Mrs. Stewart and I'm going to be your teacher!" the young woman cheerfully informed the crowd of kindergarteners. Tadashi obediently sat still at the desk he'd ended up at and hoped he wasn't going to be stuck with this group of people. He'd tried striking up a few conversations while waiting for the teacher, but had been struck by how stupid everyone seemed to be. He hoped Mrs. Stewart was smarter.

"We're going to do a lot learning and have fun doing it! Let's start by learning each others' names!"

So far, Tadashi less than impressed. But he sat still through the game they played while introducing themselves and gave his own name when prompted. Then they moved on to colors and shapes, Mrs. Stewart apparently subtly testing them on what they knew. Not that it was hard. She didn't even have indigo as an option, much less shades like puce or ocher. By the time they were allowed out for recess, Tadashi was bored out of his mind. At least home had books and the internet. Recess, he quickly learned, was worse.

"Hey, can I join?" he asked some of the older kids who looked like they were doing something interesting with fancy trading cards and math. The older kids shot each other looks before shaking their heads.

"Go away, Kindergartener. You'll just mess up the cards."

"No, I won't," Tadashi protested.

"Well, I'm not letting you touch my cards. Get your own," the other boy said, turning away. "Go play with the other kindergarteners or something."

"But they're stupid," Tadashi protested. The older boys both snorted.

"Yeah, well, get used to it. Lots of people are." Then they shut him out entirely, leaving Tadashi with nothing to do except explore the playground in the time they had left. Subsequent recesses, once everything had been explored, brought no better prospects and certainly no friendships. If he was lucky, he might snag a swing and get going fast enough that none of the bigger kids could knock him out of it and steal it for themselves, but that was only on good days. Usually, he just wandered the perimeter alone just to have something to do. It was better than sitting there while whatever teacher was in charge of the group for the day shot him worried looks and tried to urge him to play with the others. He'd tried telling them the other kids didn't want to play with him any more than he wanted to play with them, but they didn't listen. Adults could be so stupid sometimes.

* * *

Friday was apparently library day and Tadashi had been looking forward to it since he'd heard it existed. Everything else about school had been horrid. His peers really were as stupid as he'd feared and the teacher was still catching some of them up on things like basic counting and the alphabet, meaning Tadashi was bored out of his mind during class. He should've known with his luck that library day would prove to be just as awful as everything else at school had.

"Alright, class! Here's our section! You can choose three books to check out! No shoving, please!"

Tadashi looked at the thin, brightly colored books on the shelves with a feeling of consternation. Then, carefully, he chose the first book and the last book and, just to make sure he had an appropriate sample size, three randomly from the middle.

"Oh, good! Go sit down for now, Tadashi, and decide which three you want," Mrs. Stewart stated hurriedly before going to break up the fight that had started between Jeremy and Maria because Jeremy liked Maria but was stupid enough to show it by pulling on her braid and Maria had enough big brothers to know how to throw a punch.

Tadashi trudged with his books over to the indicated table and looked at them just long enough to confirm his suspicions. They were stupid. They were as stupid as his classmates. With a sigh, Tadashi left them at the table and walked away, wondering where they kept the _real_ books. It wasn't until he reached the eighth grade section that he found anything that met his standards.

* * *

Mrs. Stewart lined up the kids and did a head count, only to frantically recount when she came up one short. Nope, still one missing. Who? Oh, Tadashi Hamada. He was a distressingly quiet child who had yet to make any friends and was far too easy to overlook. With the school librarian keeping an eye on her rowdy class as she checked out their books, Mrs. Stewart went to go fetch him. She found the books she'd seen him select sitting on the table nearest the kindergarten section, but no sign of the boy. She grabbed the books and went hunting and was surprised to find him in the section dedicated to the oldest kids in the school.

"Hi, Mrs. Stewart," he greeted her with a smile before holding out his books. "Can I get these? They look really good."

Mrs. Stewart blinked as she realized the child was holding out _I, Robot_, _The Westing Game_, and was that _The Lord of the Flies_? Feeling a bit pale, she quickly shook her head.

"No, sweetie. You need to pick something at your reading level. What was wrong with these?" she insisted as she held out the books he'd picked earlier. The boy, to her surprise, scowled and stated, "They're stupid."

Mrs. Stewart sighed and stated, "But we're out of time and these are your only options right now. Now, which three are you getting?"

With a huff, Tadashi set aside the other books he'd grabbed, no doubt based off of their covers, and randomly grabbed three from the five his teacher was holding.

"Great! Now let's go catch up with your classmates and check these out, okay?"

"Okay," Tadashi agreed obediently but with a definite sulky attitude. Mrs. Stewart sighed again. Hopefully it wouldn't last long.

* * *

The sulky attitude wasn't going away at all. If anything, it had gotten much worse. When Mrs. Stewart had assigned the kids to read at least one book (or, rather, have a parent or guardian read it to them) and then share what they'd read with the class, she learned Tadashi hadn't bothered reading any of the books at all. When asked, he'd just replied, "They're stupid."

It had gotten worse from there. He started refusing to do any class work. He wouldn't answer any questions at all except to say, "That's stupid." He even called his classmates stupid, which completely undermined every attempt she'd made at getting him to play with them. It was beginning to become disruptive because the other kids were starting to try and get out of things by calling them "stupid" as well. It was time for a parent-teacher conference.

A heavily pregnant Carol Hamada, obviously well into her third trimester, met Mrs. Stewart with an apprehensive look during lunch. Tadashi had been sent off to join the others with a bagged lunch, a change as Carol normally took him home for lunch as they were still only doing half days.

"He's not doing well, is he?" Carol stated as she absently rubbed her belly. "We were worried he wouldn't."

Mrs. Stewart sighed again - she'd taken to doing that quite often, much to her chagrin - and stated, "He refuses to do the work or interact with his peers and I can't figure out why. He just says everything is stupid. How are things at home?"

"Good. Well, I think they are. He helps me bake and plays quietly with his toys while I work and he's usually really obedient."

"What about his friends?"

"He's never had any. There's no other families with young children close to where we live. It's mostly older couples and a few with high schoolers. He usually just spends time with me and Shinichi."

"And is this going to be his first sibling?"

"Yes. Do you think that's the trouble? I mean, he didn't seem upset by the news but he didn't seem happy either. Kind of neutral, really. Although, us sending him to school about the same time we told him probably didn't help."

"Probably not," the teacher agreed before sighing yet again.

"I'm going to be honest. If Tadashi doesn't do the work, he's going to end up held back. With his age, that might not be a bad thing. There might be other options, as well. There's remedial classes and such that are smaller and might make him more comfortable interacting with his peers. They're all day only, however. Did you want to try signing him up for one of those?"

Carol Hamada smiled a little tightly and said, "I'll have to talk it over with Shinichi and get back to you, but I have a feeling we're going to end up going with the second choice." Mrs. Stewart nodded and they ended the meeting with pamphlets and the agreement to meet next week.

* * *

Tadashi hadn't thought school could get worse, but it did. They moved him to a full day remedial class and Ms. Smith was much sterner than Mrs. Stewart. Any time he said the word "stupid" he was forced to stand in the corner and he quickly learned it was better to be obedient than having to stand still and quiet in the corner.

Being obedient meant having to constantly repeat the alphabet in front of kids who honestly had trouble with it, usually because English wasn't their first language. It meant being called stupid by the other kids because he was in the remedial class. It also meant no more library days where he could sneak away from the group and try and get a bit further in his reading. _I, Robot_ was actually really good and he hated not knowing what happened next. Instead, Ms. Smith would bring books to them and make them choose from the extremely limited selection.

On the plus side, he actually made a friend. Abs, short for Absalom, was actually pretty smart. He just didn't know enough English to do well in the other classes. Tadashi helped him with his English and Abs taught him Spanish and they tossed in a bit of Japanese just because and they soon had their own language. But, a month later, Abs moved away. Tadashi had cried.

He hated school.

* * *

Carol Hamada bit her lip as she picked up Tadashi from school. The remedial classes weren't helping. He'd perked up a bit when he'd made a friend but said friend had moved recently and Tadashi hadn't smiled since. He also hadn't talked to her or Shinichi since being put in the remedial class. It hurt seeing her little man so miserable but she wasn't sure what else to do. She huffed as another contraction hit. They were still far apart and her water hadn't broken yet. She felt much calmer than she had with Tadashi and knew it wasn't time yet.

"Tadashi, sweetie, talk to me. Please?"

"You think I'm stupid," Tadashi replied, looking out the side window instead of looking at her.

"I don't think you're stupid. You're just... different from the other kids."

"Then why'd you put me in the stupid class?" Tadashi asked with a scowl in her direction.

"Because you weren't doing well in the other class, sweetie," Carol explained before muttering to herself, "Not that you're doing well in your current class either." Maybe they should have held him back a year.

Tadashi's scowled turned even fiercer as he proclaimed, "School's stupid."

"School is not stupid. You need to do well if you want to... Ah, crap." Her water had just broken.

"Mommy?" Tadashi looked worried now.

"Your little brother decided he wanted to come early," she explained even as she changed from driving home to driving to Cass's. Thankfully she had overnight bags for both her and Tadashi in the trunk and she'd called Cass earlier when she'd felt the contractions just in case.

"You're going to stay with your Aunt Cass for a bit, okay? And when it's time to come home, your little brother will be there too," Carol added with a brittle smile. She pulled up to Cass's soon enough and her sister rushed out to meet her.

"They're not fake contractions, are they?" Cass stated more than asked, biting her lip.

"Nope. Water broke. I'm heading straight for the hospital after this. Here's Tadashi's bag. I'll have Shinichi call you once everything's done, okay?"

"Okay."

"Good. Hey, little man. Be good for your Aunt Cass, okay? Love you, baby."

Carol then gave Tadashi a kiss and left to drive herself to the hospital. Shinichi met her there.

* * *

"So, how's school?" Cass asked as she sat at the café table she'd sat Tadashi at with a coloring book and crayons. There was finally a slump in customers so she didn't need to keep running around.

"Bad," Tadashi stated, not looking up from what he was coloring.

"Oh? What's bad about it?" Cass asked, trying to get her nephew to open up.

"Everything is really stupid," Tadashi replied.

"Like what?"

"They make us read stupid books and name colors and sing the alphabet and it's so boring," Tadashi complained as he finally looked up from his picture. His very carefully colored picture, Cass noted with a bit of awe. Most kids Tadashi's age had trouble staying in the lines, but Tadashi's were not only perfectly in but surprisingly well color-coordinated. An idea struck Cass.

"What stuff would you rather be doing in school?" she asked, trying to keep her tone idle.

"Better books. Not the stupid ones but real books. Math, not just counting. More colors than the basic ones. Maybe how to spell some of the harder words," Tadashi admitted as he went back to coloring. Cass drummed her fingers against the table as she thought. She remembered a picture of Tadashi looking at baby books and her sister's confusion at Tadashi's lack of response to the announcement he'd be a big brother. Cass was starting to suspect Tadashi had known before the announcement.

"Would you like to borrow some of my books?" she eventually asked, if a bit hesitantly. Tadashi looked up at her and actually smiled.

"Do you have _I, Robot_? I started reading that one in the library but the teacher made me put it back. I'd like to know how it ends."

"I think I might. Let's go look. In fact, you can read it to me so I don't accidentally spoil it for you or anything, okay?"

"Okay."

Later, after dinner and bath time and a quick last minute snack, Cass could only watch in awe and smile as Tadashi read a book that should've been far out of his league out loud with only the occasional mispronunciation, and those were obviously because he'd never heard the word said out loud before. Her nephew was a genius. She couldn't wait to tell her sister. Then, after a hug and kiss goodnight and a promise they could continue the story tomorrow and, if necessary, Tadashi could take the book home, she tucked him in and went to her computer. There, she looked up child development specialists who might know what to do with a genius who'd apparently taught himself to read and wrote down the phone number for the highest-rated one she could find locally. She'd give it to her sister the next time she saw her. Maybe this would help.

* * *

Tadashi stood on the step stool he'd quietly dragged to the crib and looked down at his sleeping baby brother. Sure, he'd seen him earlier in the rush as they picked him up from Aunt Cass's, but Tadashi had been busy making sure Aunt Cass didn't forget the book to look then and after that it was all, "Shush, the baby's sleeping." Now that his mommy and daddy were sleeping too, Tadashi took advantage.

Hiro looked kind of like an ugly version of the dolls the girls at school liked to play with. He also had hair, a great big tuft of it sticking up from the top of his head. Tadashi wondered if it had tickled his mommy while Hiro was inside her.

Gingerly, Tadashi reached out a finger to touch Hiro, only to stop when he realized Hiro's eyes were open and he was looking up at Tadashi. Hiro waved his fists and kicked his feet and one of his hands accidentally hit Tadashi's finger and latched on. It was a surprisingly strong grip and Tadashi found himself giving his baby brother a silly smile.

"Hey, Hiro," he whispered. "I'm your big brother, Tadashi. I'm going to help look out for you, okay?"

And sure, Tadashi knew Hiro was going to be boring and stuff until he got old enough to play with but his mommy had been right. He'd loved Hiro the moment he'd gotten a good look at him. He probably would've continued to stand there while Hiro kicked his feet and waved his hands except Hiro made a muffled noise of discontent and tried sucking on his free hand when it got close enough to his mouth.

"Huh. Hungry? I think mommy left some of her special milk in the fridge," Tadashi said. Then he realized he didn't want Hiro to let him go nor did he want to rip his finger from Hiro's grasp. With a frown, he calculated angles and then reached in and picked up his baby brother, making sure to support Hiro's head like all of the books had said to do. Then he carefully stepped off of the stool and carried his brother to the kitchen.

* * *

Carol Hamada had barely accepted the note Cass had insisted on giving her, glancing only at it long enough to read that it was for a child development specialist according to Cass's handwriting, before tucking it away to deal with when she wasn't exhausted. Which, she acknowledged guiltily, probably wouldn't be for months, if not years. She was just too tired to deal with whatever was going on with Tadashi.

She was rather shocked when she got to sleep through the night her first night back, and then alarmed. The baby monitor was on and working properly, so she should've heard Hiro crying during the night. A quick look at the video feed showed a disturbing lack of Hiro in the crib, however. A quick look at the other side of the bed showed her husband, but no sign of Hiro, leaving Carol in a panic.

A quick look in the nursery showed a step stool next to the crib and terror gripped her when she realized Tadashi had to have removed Hiro from the crib. Tadashi wasn't in his room or the guest room. She nearly cried with relief when she found her boys on the couch in the living room. Tadashi had fallen asleep curled protectively around his little brother, who also slept peacefully with the couch propping him up on his side and Tadashi's hand as a pillow. An empty bottle and a dirty diaper on the coffee table showed exactly why Carol hadn't been woken up during the night.

A glance in the kitchen showed the bottle warmer standing ready, the surprisingly complicated instruction booklet pulled out and left open to the part on how to heat a bottle. Carol left it alone and instead sat in the chair by the couch and stared at her boys. She eventually stirred enough to grab her phone from the table and call her sister.

"Cass? What did you and Tadashi get up to while I was in the hospital?" she asked her sister when she answered the phone.

"Not much. But I found out why he's having trouble at school," Cass replied. "Did you know he can read? And I don't mean like simple things. I'm talking eighth grade reading level, at least. In fact, in that picture you took of him reading the baby book? I think he's actually reading the book."

"Oh. Then the number you gave me, the one for the child development specialist?"

"He specializes in gifted kids," Cass confirmed her sister's suspicion. "I have a feeling you're going to need it."

"I think you're right," Carol agreed even as she gave her little men a fond, if wry, smile.

They would eventually go see the specialist and when Tadashi went back to school, it was to a different school - one with a very nice program for advanced and gifted children - and it was as a first grader as he'd easily tested out of even the advanced-placement kindergarten. He'd nearly tested out of first grade entirely and was in the advanced classes only because he had to catch up on few things due to starting later than the other kids.

Tadashi had come home his first day at his new school, babbling on about how smart everyone was, from his classmates to his teachers, and enthusing about his classes. By the second day, his enthusiasm included new friends.

Carol and Shinichi were just glad that they knew what was wrong and that Tadashi was happy with his new school, even if they weren't sure how to raise a genius. They'd figure it out as they went, they decided. Tadashi was easy-going enough he'd probably forgive them for any mistakes they made, like putting him in that remedial class. Still, it was a bit nerve-wracking realizing they'd screwed up that badly. Thank goodness Hiro was normal.

Five years later, Cass wouldn't be the least bit surprised when she found Hiro helping Tadashi with his homework. She just smiled and went to look up that specialist's number again. She had a feeling she'd need it.

* * *

**Notes:** Shinichi and Carol probably aren't the real names of the Hamada parents, but I felt the need to name them. Shinichi is a very common Japanese name with many different meanings depending on what kanji are used, although 'shi' is also one of the Japanese words for 'death', which is my main reason for using it. Carol means 'strong' and it sounds good next to Cass. I also have the headcanon that Cass is the boys' maternal aunt because we never actually hear her referred to as a Hamada (nor does she look Japanese) and she's not given a last name in the credits. Which is why I'm frustrated that the tag wranglers on AO3 have randomly given her the last name of Hamada.

This one's pretty much entirely headcanon on my part although, like many of my headcanons, backed up quite a bit by actual canon. I firmly believe Tadashi is just as much a genius as Hiro, if an understated one, and my proof is Baymax. Baymax, you see, is a fully autonomous robot capable of not only interacting with his environment, but _learning_ from it. While this is certainly a goal in robotics, we're currently held back by a number of things, including the fact that the processing power for such a thing just doesn't exist yet. The best we can do is shortcuts or something so massive it can't move. For example, the Hyperion rendering which was done to create the lighting in the movie to make it more realistic? Takes four multi-location _servers_. Something as advanced as Baymax? Either they've upped the tech to an impressive degree in the BH6 universe or - and this is more likely, considering the other tech we see - Tadashi's come up with some rather revolutionary coding or, most likely, a combination of the two.

Tadashi's problems with school are very loosely - and I mean _very loosely_ \- based on my own childhood. I was the brilliant kid in the school too small to have advanced placement classes and I spent most of my school years bored and miserable because of the lack of challenge and the fact that, as a young child, I didn't realize I was advanced and just thought my peers were kind of dumb - which did not help me make friends. Unfortunately, like Hiro, I wasn't really challenged until college (where I tested out of pretty much all of the freshman classes... actually, I tested out of college-level math while still in high school. Was still forced to take the class. And that was my worst subject...). Anyway, I wanted Tadashi to have a happier time at school than I did, so I gave him one.


	3. The Eyebrow Incident

**The Eyebrow Incident**

It was a gorgeous late spring day when it happened. Hiro had just turned six months old and Tadashi was just shy of six years when Carol and Shinichi had invited Cass over for a barbecue. It was just a small thing, nothing fancy. It wasn't like Carol and Cass weren't at each other's places all the time, not including their weekly Girls' Night Out.

Shinichi had been in the backyard grilling while Cass and Carol got the non-grilled food ready. Tadashi was playing quietly with Hiro. A little too quietly in Carol's opinion, which is why her ears pricked when she heard her oldest say, "There, done."

"Done with what, Tadashi?" she asked as she sat down the bowl of fruit salad on the table and turned to look at the boy just in time to see a guilty look as he tried to hide something. Eyes narrowing, she commanded, "Bring it here."

Reluctantly, Tadashi obeyed.

"What is that? Glue?" It was, specifically it was the glue for the fake eyelashes she had in their Halloween box, which was supposed to be buried in the hall closet. A quick glance at the closet door showed it was ajar.

"What were you doing with this?" Carol asked, afraid of the answer.

"Ms. Hernandez explained why we have odd things like bellybuttons and eyebrows and why they're important. Did you know eyebrows help protect your eyes? Then I realized Hiro didn't have any eyebrows, so I gave him some."

"You what?" Carol asked blankly even as her sister moved to get Hiro. Cass burst out laughing before picking up Carol's baby boy and Carol had to admit, it was rather funny.

Tadashi had glued the biggest, longest, fluffiest set of fake eyelashes he could get his hands on to Hiro's forehead. Hiro was obviously fascinated by them, as he was trying to look at them. He'd open his eyes wide in wonder, but when that would result in him raising the fake eyebrows out of easy view, he'd start to scowl but, as that would bring the eyebrows back into easier view, he'd go wide-eyed with awe again and start the cycle all over. The end result was her baby boy waggling the bushiest pair of eyebrows a baby could have.

With her attempt at being stern with Tadashi ruined by her and Cass's amusement and Hiro obviously unharmed, Carol shook her head and let it be. Shinichi would also get a kick out of it when he came in from the grill, crowing with laughter at his oldest son's ingenuity. Cass eventually insisted on a picture where Tadashi was holding Hiro.

"For when they go to prom," she said. Later on, the picture would be added to a family photo album.

* * *

_14 years later_

Tadashi came down from putting Baymax in his charger to see his friends gathered around the kotatsu with Aunt Cass, looking at something. Hiro was standing nearby, looking chagrined.

"What are you guys doing?" Tadashi asked with a slight frown.

"Just showing them the old family picture album," Aunt Cass stated before squealing, "Oh, oh, you have to see this one!"

Aunt Cass crowed as she pulled the photo from the album and passed it around. Tadashi glanced at it along with his brother and their friends only to pale and go, "Oh no."

"That is so adorable!" Honey Lemon cooed.

"And funny!" Fred added with a loud laugh. Gogo smirked when she took a look.

"The hell is on my face?" Hiro asked with a frown.

"Your brother decided you needed more visible eyebrows, so he glued some fake eyelashes on you," Aunt Cass cheerfully informed her nephew.

"Really?" Hiro asked, giving Tadashi a look.

"I was _five_, okay?"

"Almost six and already in first grade," Aunt Cass stated proudly. Hiro raised an eyebrow at Tadashi, who had buried his face in his hands in embarrassment.

"He wasn't hurt by them, was he?" Wasabi asked.

"Nah. Came right off with some baby oil. Hiro cried, of course, but that's because he loved them so much. Kept waggling them all over the place. I wish I still had the video we'd taken."

Fred, who hadn't stopped laughing, cracked up even harder while Hiro blushed.

"I... think I remember that," Hiro admitted reluctantly. "There was something that looked fuzzy that Tadashi had given me and I wanted to touch it but it kept disappearing every time I tried looking at it. Then it was taken away and I was so upset because it was mine and I hadn't gotten it to stay still long enough to touch it."

"Aw!"

"Next picture, please," Tadashi begged, "Like the one where Hiro was the tree in the school play."

"You were a tree?" Gogo asked, raising an eyebrow at Hiro.

"He was the best tree ever!" Aunt Cass enthused even as she flipped through the book. "I know we have a couple of pictures of that in here somewhere..." Since neither of her boys had gone to prom, she'd had to improvise a reason to pull out the pictures. It was her duty to embarrass them, after all.

* * *

**Notes:** Hiro as a tree in the school play was shamelessly stolen from Becky_Blue_Eyes (I hope you don't mind!). Concept art for the Hamada house implies their dining room table is actually a kotatsu, which is a short table with a heating element inside to keep the people sitting at it warm. The rest of this was inspired by a picture I saw online.


End file.
